Hi Ziners -- Just wanted to point out that with ATM cards,
American ATMs give you the opportunity to choose which
account you want to withdraw money from (eg., checking or
savings), European ATMs automatically withdraw from your
primary checking account.

We learned this the hard way. When my daughter went to
college in the UK seven years ago, the plan was for her to
use her ATM card to withdraw money from her savings
account, but it wouldn't work -- which puzzled me because I
had used mine there with no problem the previous year. Our
bank insisted that it should have worked, as did the banks
she went to in London. She finally had to resort to using a
credit card with it's large cash advance fees.

We never did figure out why her ATM card was not working
until last summer when the young son of a friend went to
Europe with an only an ATM card. When it didn't work, his
parents learned from their bank that, since he only had a
savings account, not a, he couldn't withdraw any money. In
this case his parents had to wire him money.

We now make a point of being sure that we have more than
enough money in our primary checking account to cover any
cash we might need when we are in Europe.